Godsaintbob
08-09-2010, 11:47 PM
This is my first bit of fiction I've written since grade 12 English so bear with me I'm trying, as for the subject, what can I say I like wh40k
Chapter 1
Dallius Adair was punching the solar cell into power cells used for lasguns, at least they are supposed to but during his tour with the PDF he had learned of the power cells many uses, from a grenade, to a method of cooking food without smoke. He had seen some combat against the feral orks but not enough in case of a raid. He sighed and said under his breath, "Emperor save me why did I come to this hellhole". Here he was staring into the jaws of the beast. The glowing ionisation of the Eye was visible even in daylight. Work was Not the usual 10-hour shift, under constant wartime conditions that was ignored. Today he was going on 13 hours and he was nearing the end of his endurance, at last he felt the foreman give him a firm pat on the back as he said "you had a good run today Dallius go home".
He gave a good long sigh and said "its about fucking time, I cant hold this pace for much longer". "It wasn't too bad today I don't what your complaining about", said the foreman. Dallius gave a chuckle, "easy for you say, the emperor seems to have given you the easy work". "No position comes without effort Dal, you think the regiments of the imperial guard went easy on there ammunition during the last black crusade? I was a line worker like you back then and things were so bad that we had people dying on the line". He took this like one of his grandfather's stories, no doubt it was hard but it was an exaggeration.
He walked home noticing the increased military traffic, Chimeras, Lemen Russ battle tanks, and the gigantic baneblades. Also he saw a heavy weapon squad setting up a heavy bolter on the corner of his street. This was normal with the wax and wane of alert levels. He arrived at his house, ha house, as if they had room for houses on a forge world. It was more like a room with a cooking unit, and a cot to sleep in. he looked outside in the dimming light and saw something in the Eye of Terror, perhaps it was Cadia, perhaps it was something else.
As he slept he had a swirl of disturbing images, from the impaling of the soldiers on cruel spears, to the slaughter of his family by tyranids on Tallarn. He awoke in a cold sweat after seeing a disfigured human face laugh a distorted demonic laugh. He walked outside and one again looked up at the Eye and saw distant flashes of a huge space battle, he stood there motionless, staring at the flashes. He grabbed an imperial soldier and asked him what was going on. "The bloody chaos has got our fleet on the ropes an- gahhhh!". A red beam streaked out from the opposite doorway, striking the guardsman, blowing a hole though his heart spraying blood and small parts of burnt flesh into his face. He grabbed the guardsman as he fell, but it was useless, he was dead. Two more red beams flashed by as the assailant shot at him. He grabbed the fallen soldier's lasgun and took aim, seeing the shooter against the light, he drew a bead on the centre mass as he was trained in. and fired. The massive kick that gun gave said that it was modified to be a sniper rifle. The lasbolt travelled though the gunner and smacked into the wall behind with a small explosion.
He caught his breath as he walked up to the smouldering corpse. Through the tattoos and scars of dozens of unholy rituals he recognised the face of his neighbour. He staggered back just in time to hear a scream of pure pain and terror. He quickly looked up and saw a person who lived 200 feet down the road getting cruelly gutted by a cultist. He looked at the lasgun realising that in a firefight the gun would be useless, dropped it in favour for the laspistol the cultist was carrying. He looked up at the slain woman down the street, and saw that the one cultist had turned into a squad of 12.
In an instant he bolted down the road. The squad spotted him and opened fire. The needle thin streaks of crimson flashed by. In an instant, a lasbolt singed his neck as he yelled, " SHIT! This IS NOT GOING AS PLANED!" He rounded the corner and, to his dismay, he saw that both the gunner and his backup had fist sized holes in there flak armour. He decided to take matters into his own hands as he pushed the two bodies up against the sandbag wall. He looked down the sights, checked his ammo, and cocked the bolter.
He saw the squad round the corner, he took aim and reached for what he thought was the trigger. The pulled it and to his surprise and dismay, the cleaning kit for the gun popped out. "OH WHAT THE FUC- BOOM!" in an instant the cultists turned into pink mist. Looking for the source of this seeming act of divine intervention. Behind him , unnoticed until now a baneblade sat with its barrel smoking directly behind him. The commanders hatch popped open and the commander poked his head out. "Sorry about that mate, are your eardrums still intact?" "What?" yelled Dallius, his ears still ringing from the blast. "Good, listen the imperial guard is making a stand at the spaceport, were trying to hold out until reinforcements arrive, we could use all of the help we can get." "But, sir, I'm not a soldier!" exclaimed Dallius. "Looks like you don't have a choice in the matter, its either fight or die." He pulled out a lasgun from a bag attached to the hull of the massive tank, a carbine from the looks of it. "Here take this, I wont be getting out of my tank, so you'll probably need it more, and besides just what were you going to do with that angry flashlight anyway". He thought about it, then he grabbed the carbine, discarding the laspistol. The commander smiled "That's the sprit now hop on I'll give you a ride to the spaceport."
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Chapter 2
Dallius was sitting on the tank, scanning the windows for any sign of chaos activity. He knew they would see him long before he saw them. The sun was just creeping over the horizon but already he could see the destruction the city had gone though. Pillars of smoke rose in every direction and almost every building was under threat of falling from damage. Up ahead there was an explosion and a severed arm with blood still flowing from the stump landed on the tank. He looked at it with disgust and kicked it off the tank. The tank commander had given him a vox receiver so he could hear orders and troop movements, but all he could hear over it was static and the odd cry for help, mercy, or the sound of battle coming from the space port.
As the spaceport approached the vox became clear and what had been chaos was now an ordered defence. "Hey there is the space port," said the voice of the tank commander. Another voice came over the vox "Baneblade 745290, you are to report to the following area immediately." "Yes sir. Well I have to leave mate." Dallius jumped off the tank, carbine in hand and looked around. He saw that the spaceport was heavily fortified, with twin-linked lascannons and mortars in the courtyard of the port. A loud speaker blared out "all new recruits are to report to the departure booth". He walked up to the line-up at the booth and saw his friend. "Hey Marius!" Marius looked over and said "Dallius! I thought you were dead!"
As the advanced in the line they shared the stories of their escapes. Marius had to stab a cultist in the neck with his own sword after he had overpowered him.
They reached the front of the line and the two guardsmen gave them flak jackets, helmets and in Marius's case a lasgun with four power cells, which he also received. They moved to their portion of the wall, which was on the northern side. The walls provided good cover with slits for firing guns. Beside them was a squad of cadian shock troopers, and on the other side was a squad of Elysian drop troopers. Both squads were veterans. He braced the carbine against his shoulder looking though the sight. He saw in the distance movement, chaos, thousands of them. He looked at the cadians and even they looked on with strained faces. He slapped a power cell into the carbine housing and pressed the charge button. The Chaos forces were approaching the first defence line. It was over in minutes, the distant crimson lines of lasgun fire was accompanied by the distant pop of bolter fire and grinding roar of chainswords meeting, and eventually screams over the vox as the line melted away into a rout.
He turned to Marius, who had been with him during the fighting with the feral orks when they were in the PDF. They were childhood friends from Tallarn, and they had both lost their parents when the tyranids attacked, they were saved by a retreating group of guardsmen as the ripper swarms engulfed there home. As memories flooded back from that day, all he could feel was rage, rage over his parents, rage over the desecration of what had become his home, rage for this whole fucking war. Marius saw the rage pass through his eyes and put a comforting hand on his shoulderplate. "We have been through far worse to let a black crusade stop us." He smiled but he could see the strain in his eyes. "No matter how today ends, it will be the will of the emperor." A cadian overheard them, walked over to them and said, "there have been far worse odds than what we face today. Have courage."
The second line came under attack and now they had a front row seat to hell, from the wall they could see the swarms of daemons spawned from the warp attacking the guardsman. He could see one guardsman being attacked by three grotesque looking sharp toothed pink…things. The guardsman over charged the power cell In his rifle and Dallius flinched as the cell exploded in a bright blue fireball. A priest hacked his way though the hordes of cultists until a chaos marine cut his head off in a shower of gore, to his horror he saw the marine skin the head and hang it from his belt. At last the screams died down on the vox and the last shower of blood settled.
Then the attackers moved on the wall and at that instant the order was given to open fire. Thousands of lasguns, hellguns, and bolters turned the area where the vanguard of the army was, into a meat grinder, a red mist rose as the bodies of cultists vaporised. Then, something was moving through the fire, he couldn't make out what it was, except for the fact that lasbolts were not stopping it. " Mar, you see that" he franticly yelled to Marius who was plugging away at some cultists who had made it though the barrage. "See wha- by the emperor what the fuck is that!" He looked again and saw a four-legged crab like machine, with two flamers spouting a pink flame onto the wall, a cannon shaped in the likeness of a giant mouth. The very sight chilled his heart as he saw the cannon fire point blank into the wall. A shower of plasteel and cerimite showered them. But just as he thought the battle was lost, a baneblade turned around a corner and sighted its main cannon on the… thing. It fired and the siege engine exploded into a pink fireball. The men on the wall gave a cheer, the morale boosted by its destruction.
The boost was short lived as chaos marines started to approach the wall. They held heavy bolters and plasma guns; their power armour was adorned with skulls of important kills and scared from ten thousand years of conflict. They were everything he had been taught to hate since day one. He heard a distant roar, which grew louder every second he stood there listening to it. Then he realised what the sound was… jump packs. He reached for his bayonet, and fixed it on his lasgun, as Marius did the same.
The raptor squads crashed apon the northeastern and northwestern sides of the wall, they were trapped. They waited for the enemy to hack there way to them. Just then a commissar rose to confront the advancing raptors and in a single swipe a sword cut through the power armour of the closest raptor, blood spurted from the battered armour as the marine fell off the wall. "Soldiers of the imperium, rise and fight! The emperor watches us today, let his fury against these traitors and heretics transgress into you! We are the hammer and shield of the imperium! The tip of his spear! And should we fall this day, MAKE THEM REMEMBER THE NAME AGRIPINAA! FOR THE EMPEROR!" A unifying cry among the guardsmen went up along the wall "FOR THE EMPEROR!". Dallius felt a new feelling in his heart, not one of despair, one of faith, duty, and comradeship, if today was indeed to be his last day, he would take out as many of those traitorous bastards as he could.
The zeal of battle filled his veins and his soul, the crack of the lasgun was music to his ears, the screams of the dying cultists and chaos marines was just as welcome as the sounds of approaching aircraft. Wait Aircraft? He looked up and the sky was blotted out with a mixture of vallkyries and vulture gunships that were descending from the sky. A loud and resounding cheer echoed from the battlements. In that moment of joy he had forgotten about the remaining chaos marines on the wall, he heard the telltale sound of a chainsword grinding though flesh and bone as blood splattered him in the face.
Acting by desperation alone, he ducked under the raptors next swing, then attempted to jam his bayonet under the chin. The pitiful blade snapped, as the armour was too strong for it. The raptor laughed at his attempt to harm him. "Laugh at this you piece of useless shit!" screamed Dallius as he pulled the trigger of his lasgun. Fragments of armour mixed with grey matter and skull fragments exploded from the raptor's head, as Dallius kicked the lifeless body off the wall. The raptor behind was too busy making a guardsman's life end… slowly, to notice him bringing his carbine to his shoulder; he pulled the trigger, aiming for the raptor's jump pack. The lasbolt barely peeled the paint. Looking around he saw the bolt pistol that the previous marine had dropped. Grabbing the pistol, he took aim with the heavy weapon at the same place and fired. The explosion blew him off the wall, and in a moment of terror he felt shrapnel hit his flak vest. Luckily his vest took the shrapnel, but the fall had hit him hard. He thought his spine might have been broken, but a quick check of all four of his limbs proved this wrong. He stood up and looked skyward, the air support had disappeared.
He came across a mortar team that had run out of ammo and asked the commander where the aircraft had went. "I honestly don't know nobody is saying anything." A thud was heard at the gate, and he looked towards it. The dust had been disturbed from the gate. "You want help with that?" inquired the commander. "Help with what?" the artilleryman pointed at his chest. He looked down, and noticed that a large piece of metal lodged in his armour. "Please". Another thud permeated the air, as 3 squads of kasrkins ran for the gate. "Dallius!" He looked over and up ran Marius; he had a cut along his cheek but otherwise was unharmed. "Marius! Are you okay!". "Yes, no thanks to you, what the hell were you thinking, shooting that bastard in the jump pack!". "It's not like I didn't consider what might happen! Besides you're not the one with a large chunk of metal in your fucking chest!". "You two! Stop fighting, there will be plenty more of that when that gate comes down for the both of you! now do you want that out or not!"
Three minutes and twenty curses later the chunk of fuel tank was free and discarded, more squads had moved to the gate, awaiting the inevitable breach. He picked up his lasgun, which had fallen nearby and examined it. The weapon was useless, having taken the full force of the blast. The bolt pistol, which he had managed to keep a hold of, was still in working order, but he had no ammunition, save what he had in the magazine. He grumbled but seeing no other weapons he kept the bolter.
The gate started to crack, and the groan of its weight was heard throughout the port. Dallius joined the line while Marius looked for spare power cells and bolter clips. Standing among the guardsmen he felt that without air support all was lost, as he pondered what had happened to the aircraft, the gate started to bend outward. Rumour had it that it was some warp-spawned daemon, but that was just a rumour. Marius returned with 5 bolter clips and 10 power cells. "That'll do I think" said Dallius. "Maybe" said Marius
The gate burst open and instantly a bolter round hit Dallius in the shoulder. Dallius screamed in pain as he fell to the ground. The bolter round exploded and sent small pieces of shrapnel into his lung. Marius had just recovered from seeing this when a lasbolt hit him in the chest, cauterising the wound and sending him flying into the ground. Dallius having recovered from the initial shock of the bolter round exploding now had the problem of having to fight with one lung punctured and a hole in his shoulder the size of a small plate, the blood loss didn't help either. He took up his bolt pistol and emptied its contents into the onrushing horde of enemies, reloaded with difficulty, then continued firing. It was then he noticed the limp body of his friend on the ground with a smoking hole in his armour.
He fought back tears as he fired his last round into the chaos marines, then looked around. The bodies of guardsmen lie all around him, the remaining living guardsmen continued to fire into the enemy. Dallius reached for a nearby lasgun but he didn't have the strength to grab it. "So this is how it ends," he said half to himself, half to Marius. "Don't give up hope Dal a…after all I'm still alive". Dallius tried to reply but instead coughed up blood. He looked up, his dimming sight still able to see some detail and to his surprise a beam of bright light appeared from the sky immediately followed by an earth-shattering explosion. He smiled as he saw, far up in the sky dozens of small objects coming in though the atmosphere. He knew as his strength faded from him, all of their effort, there sacrifice, was not in vain. His vision faded as something hit the ground with tremendous force.
Chapter 3
Images flew through Dallius's mind, a red armoured soldier with a single yellow drop as a insignia firing a bolter at a black armoured hulk. Then a flash of a bright sun being blocked out by a swarm, then a face saying the words "this one's alive". Then he saw something that made his heart break, his mothers face, sweat dripping down her face and a worried expression on her face. Putting on his jacket, he saw his father looking out a window, autorifle in hand. A guardsman ran into the room. " Sir, we have to move!".*His*fathers unshaven, scared face looked up. "Take the children and my wife."
Dallius awoke with a start. He was in a white sterile room with some machinary in it, he was lying on a bed with a bottle feeding some sort of fluid into his arm. " ah your awake I see". He looked across the room to his visitor. He wore a black hooded robe but underneath he could see gleaming armour and around his neck... He inhaled sharply. An "I" with a skull In the centre, this man was an inquisitor. " I see you know what I am" he said. " I am Inquisitor Danaro of the Ordo *Mallius and my task is to see if you have the taint of chaos apon you". To this Dallius replied "Ask what you need to"
Chapter Master Dante looked at the vid-screen and spoke to the apocathary beside him "does he know?". Unlikely, brother commander he was unconscious for all of his ordeal" the white armoured marine replied. "That shot should of killed him, has he recived any genetic augmention?" asked Dante. "There was something, brother, but nothing that should of done this.". The vox light blinked, and Dante pressed the button. "Chapter Master, there is no taint evident on this man.". "So much for my second guess." Dante said to himself. "Thank you for your aid inquisitor.". "Then let us welcome our visitor"
The inquisitor left, as Dallius breathed a sigh of relief. Inquisitors are known for there "methods" of getting information. He looked again at his room, he saw behind him was a window which looked down apon a planet. Small flashes brightened and winked out as the battle raged below. The battle... Where was Marrius? His thoughts cut short as a gold armoured space marine *walked through the door. A very well known one, Chapter master Dante has lived for over one thousand years and was a hero of the Imperium when other Chapter masters were in dipers.
He lay in shock as the seven foot tall giant sat down beside his bed. Where are you from he said in high gothic. "Tallarn, my lord" he replied in the same language. The marine looked at him amused then his face turned bleak. "Tallarn was conquered by the tyranids a decade ago". "I know, I was there, I saw my family killed and was only saved by a group of guardsmen, me and one other" replied Dallius. "I see" replied the marine. "The apocathary has advised me that it would be safe for you to walk."*
Darrius walked through the many hallways of the ship, until he came apon the the blood angel's trophy room. *In it he found many relics that interested him greatly. There was a sword of a daemon prince that Was killed in single combat by Dante himself when he was just an assult marine. There was artifacts from the Horus heresy such as a full tratior suit of armour unblemished except for a hole in the head. " about time you got up" Dallius smiled "you know me, I like to sleep in.". He turned around and saw Marrius, unmarked except for his flak armour, with a huge hole seared into it.
"I gather you two know each other" a nearby white armoured marine said. "yes, we shed blood together in a few battles, as well as knowing eachother from childhood" replied Marrius. " more than you know, I am the apocathary who worked on you both, and you are... * made of sterner stuff than any soldier that I have ever known". " how do you mean?" replied Dallius. " Well first those wounds would of killed a normal human, second you healed faster than a space marine taking about 6 hours to completely heal.". Just then the ship shuddered and alarms started wailing. "What the..." Dallius started to say but the apocathary quickly said "come with me there is no time" * * * *
Chapter 1
Dallius Adair was punching the solar cell into power cells used for lasguns, at least they are supposed to but during his tour with the PDF he had learned of the power cells many uses, from a grenade, to a method of cooking food without smoke. He had seen some combat against the feral orks but not enough in case of a raid. He sighed and said under his breath, "Emperor save me why did I come to this hellhole". Here he was staring into the jaws of the beast. The glowing ionisation of the Eye was visible even in daylight. Work was Not the usual 10-hour shift, under constant wartime conditions that was ignored. Today he was going on 13 hours and he was nearing the end of his endurance, at last he felt the foreman give him a firm pat on the back as he said "you had a good run today Dallius go home".
He gave a good long sigh and said "its about fucking time, I cant hold this pace for much longer". "It wasn't too bad today I don't what your complaining about", said the foreman. Dallius gave a chuckle, "easy for you say, the emperor seems to have given you the easy work". "No position comes without effort Dal, you think the regiments of the imperial guard went easy on there ammunition during the last black crusade? I was a line worker like you back then and things were so bad that we had people dying on the line". He took this like one of his grandfather's stories, no doubt it was hard but it was an exaggeration.
He walked home noticing the increased military traffic, Chimeras, Lemen Russ battle tanks, and the gigantic baneblades. Also he saw a heavy weapon squad setting up a heavy bolter on the corner of his street. This was normal with the wax and wane of alert levels. He arrived at his house, ha house, as if they had room for houses on a forge world. It was more like a room with a cooking unit, and a cot to sleep in. he looked outside in the dimming light and saw something in the Eye of Terror, perhaps it was Cadia, perhaps it was something else.
As he slept he had a swirl of disturbing images, from the impaling of the soldiers on cruel spears, to the slaughter of his family by tyranids on Tallarn. He awoke in a cold sweat after seeing a disfigured human face laugh a distorted demonic laugh. He walked outside and one again looked up at the Eye and saw distant flashes of a huge space battle, he stood there motionless, staring at the flashes. He grabbed an imperial soldier and asked him what was going on. "The bloody chaos has got our fleet on the ropes an- gahhhh!". A red beam streaked out from the opposite doorway, striking the guardsman, blowing a hole though his heart spraying blood and small parts of burnt flesh into his face. He grabbed the guardsman as he fell, but it was useless, he was dead. Two more red beams flashed by as the assailant shot at him. He grabbed the fallen soldier's lasgun and took aim, seeing the shooter against the light, he drew a bead on the centre mass as he was trained in. and fired. The massive kick that gun gave said that it was modified to be a sniper rifle. The lasbolt travelled though the gunner and smacked into the wall behind with a small explosion.
He caught his breath as he walked up to the smouldering corpse. Through the tattoos and scars of dozens of unholy rituals he recognised the face of his neighbour. He staggered back just in time to hear a scream of pure pain and terror. He quickly looked up and saw a person who lived 200 feet down the road getting cruelly gutted by a cultist. He looked at the lasgun realising that in a firefight the gun would be useless, dropped it in favour for the laspistol the cultist was carrying. He looked up at the slain woman down the street, and saw that the one cultist had turned into a squad of 12.
In an instant he bolted down the road. The squad spotted him and opened fire. The needle thin streaks of crimson flashed by. In an instant, a lasbolt singed his neck as he yelled, " SHIT! This IS NOT GOING AS PLANED!" He rounded the corner and, to his dismay, he saw that both the gunner and his backup had fist sized holes in there flak armour. He decided to take matters into his own hands as he pushed the two bodies up against the sandbag wall. He looked down the sights, checked his ammo, and cocked the bolter.
He saw the squad round the corner, he took aim and reached for what he thought was the trigger. The pulled it and to his surprise and dismay, the cleaning kit for the gun popped out. "OH WHAT THE FUC- BOOM!" in an instant the cultists turned into pink mist. Looking for the source of this seeming act of divine intervention. Behind him , unnoticed until now a baneblade sat with its barrel smoking directly behind him. The commanders hatch popped open and the commander poked his head out. "Sorry about that mate, are your eardrums still intact?" "What?" yelled Dallius, his ears still ringing from the blast. "Good, listen the imperial guard is making a stand at the spaceport, were trying to hold out until reinforcements arrive, we could use all of the help we can get." "But, sir, I'm not a soldier!" exclaimed Dallius. "Looks like you don't have a choice in the matter, its either fight or die." He pulled out a lasgun from a bag attached to the hull of the massive tank, a carbine from the looks of it. "Here take this, I wont be getting out of my tank, so you'll probably need it more, and besides just what were you going to do with that angry flashlight anyway". He thought about it, then he grabbed the carbine, discarding the laspistol. The commander smiled "That's the sprit now hop on I'll give you a ride to the spaceport."
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Chapter 2
Dallius was sitting on the tank, scanning the windows for any sign of chaos activity. He knew they would see him long before he saw them. The sun was just creeping over the horizon but already he could see the destruction the city had gone though. Pillars of smoke rose in every direction and almost every building was under threat of falling from damage. Up ahead there was an explosion and a severed arm with blood still flowing from the stump landed on the tank. He looked at it with disgust and kicked it off the tank. The tank commander had given him a vox receiver so he could hear orders and troop movements, but all he could hear over it was static and the odd cry for help, mercy, or the sound of battle coming from the space port.
As the spaceport approached the vox became clear and what had been chaos was now an ordered defence. "Hey there is the space port," said the voice of the tank commander. Another voice came over the vox "Baneblade 745290, you are to report to the following area immediately." "Yes sir. Well I have to leave mate." Dallius jumped off the tank, carbine in hand and looked around. He saw that the spaceport was heavily fortified, with twin-linked lascannons and mortars in the courtyard of the port. A loud speaker blared out "all new recruits are to report to the departure booth". He walked up to the line-up at the booth and saw his friend. "Hey Marius!" Marius looked over and said "Dallius! I thought you were dead!"
As the advanced in the line they shared the stories of their escapes. Marius had to stab a cultist in the neck with his own sword after he had overpowered him.
They reached the front of the line and the two guardsmen gave them flak jackets, helmets and in Marius's case a lasgun with four power cells, which he also received. They moved to their portion of the wall, which was on the northern side. The walls provided good cover with slits for firing guns. Beside them was a squad of cadian shock troopers, and on the other side was a squad of Elysian drop troopers. Both squads were veterans. He braced the carbine against his shoulder looking though the sight. He saw in the distance movement, chaos, thousands of them. He looked at the cadians and even they looked on with strained faces. He slapped a power cell into the carbine housing and pressed the charge button. The Chaos forces were approaching the first defence line. It was over in minutes, the distant crimson lines of lasgun fire was accompanied by the distant pop of bolter fire and grinding roar of chainswords meeting, and eventually screams over the vox as the line melted away into a rout.
He turned to Marius, who had been with him during the fighting with the feral orks when they were in the PDF. They were childhood friends from Tallarn, and they had both lost their parents when the tyranids attacked, they were saved by a retreating group of guardsmen as the ripper swarms engulfed there home. As memories flooded back from that day, all he could feel was rage, rage over his parents, rage over the desecration of what had become his home, rage for this whole fucking war. Marius saw the rage pass through his eyes and put a comforting hand on his shoulderplate. "We have been through far worse to let a black crusade stop us." He smiled but he could see the strain in his eyes. "No matter how today ends, it will be the will of the emperor." A cadian overheard them, walked over to them and said, "there have been far worse odds than what we face today. Have courage."
The second line came under attack and now they had a front row seat to hell, from the wall they could see the swarms of daemons spawned from the warp attacking the guardsman. He could see one guardsman being attacked by three grotesque looking sharp toothed pink…things. The guardsman over charged the power cell In his rifle and Dallius flinched as the cell exploded in a bright blue fireball. A priest hacked his way though the hordes of cultists until a chaos marine cut his head off in a shower of gore, to his horror he saw the marine skin the head and hang it from his belt. At last the screams died down on the vox and the last shower of blood settled.
Then the attackers moved on the wall and at that instant the order was given to open fire. Thousands of lasguns, hellguns, and bolters turned the area where the vanguard of the army was, into a meat grinder, a red mist rose as the bodies of cultists vaporised. Then, something was moving through the fire, he couldn't make out what it was, except for the fact that lasbolts were not stopping it. " Mar, you see that" he franticly yelled to Marius who was plugging away at some cultists who had made it though the barrage. "See wha- by the emperor what the fuck is that!" He looked again and saw a four-legged crab like machine, with two flamers spouting a pink flame onto the wall, a cannon shaped in the likeness of a giant mouth. The very sight chilled his heart as he saw the cannon fire point blank into the wall. A shower of plasteel and cerimite showered them. But just as he thought the battle was lost, a baneblade turned around a corner and sighted its main cannon on the… thing. It fired and the siege engine exploded into a pink fireball. The men on the wall gave a cheer, the morale boosted by its destruction.
The boost was short lived as chaos marines started to approach the wall. They held heavy bolters and plasma guns; their power armour was adorned with skulls of important kills and scared from ten thousand years of conflict. They were everything he had been taught to hate since day one. He heard a distant roar, which grew louder every second he stood there listening to it. Then he realised what the sound was… jump packs. He reached for his bayonet, and fixed it on his lasgun, as Marius did the same.
The raptor squads crashed apon the northeastern and northwestern sides of the wall, they were trapped. They waited for the enemy to hack there way to them. Just then a commissar rose to confront the advancing raptors and in a single swipe a sword cut through the power armour of the closest raptor, blood spurted from the battered armour as the marine fell off the wall. "Soldiers of the imperium, rise and fight! The emperor watches us today, let his fury against these traitors and heretics transgress into you! We are the hammer and shield of the imperium! The tip of his spear! And should we fall this day, MAKE THEM REMEMBER THE NAME AGRIPINAA! FOR THE EMPEROR!" A unifying cry among the guardsmen went up along the wall "FOR THE EMPEROR!". Dallius felt a new feelling in his heart, not one of despair, one of faith, duty, and comradeship, if today was indeed to be his last day, he would take out as many of those traitorous bastards as he could.
The zeal of battle filled his veins and his soul, the crack of the lasgun was music to his ears, the screams of the dying cultists and chaos marines was just as welcome as the sounds of approaching aircraft. Wait Aircraft? He looked up and the sky was blotted out with a mixture of vallkyries and vulture gunships that were descending from the sky. A loud and resounding cheer echoed from the battlements. In that moment of joy he had forgotten about the remaining chaos marines on the wall, he heard the telltale sound of a chainsword grinding though flesh and bone as blood splattered him in the face.
Acting by desperation alone, he ducked under the raptors next swing, then attempted to jam his bayonet under the chin. The pitiful blade snapped, as the armour was too strong for it. The raptor laughed at his attempt to harm him. "Laugh at this you piece of useless shit!" screamed Dallius as he pulled the trigger of his lasgun. Fragments of armour mixed with grey matter and skull fragments exploded from the raptor's head, as Dallius kicked the lifeless body off the wall. The raptor behind was too busy making a guardsman's life end… slowly, to notice him bringing his carbine to his shoulder; he pulled the trigger, aiming for the raptor's jump pack. The lasbolt barely peeled the paint. Looking around he saw the bolt pistol that the previous marine had dropped. Grabbing the pistol, he took aim with the heavy weapon at the same place and fired. The explosion blew him off the wall, and in a moment of terror he felt shrapnel hit his flak vest. Luckily his vest took the shrapnel, but the fall had hit him hard. He thought his spine might have been broken, but a quick check of all four of his limbs proved this wrong. He stood up and looked skyward, the air support had disappeared.
He came across a mortar team that had run out of ammo and asked the commander where the aircraft had went. "I honestly don't know nobody is saying anything." A thud was heard at the gate, and he looked towards it. The dust had been disturbed from the gate. "You want help with that?" inquired the commander. "Help with what?" the artilleryman pointed at his chest. He looked down, and noticed that a large piece of metal lodged in his armour. "Please". Another thud permeated the air, as 3 squads of kasrkins ran for the gate. "Dallius!" He looked over and up ran Marius; he had a cut along his cheek but otherwise was unharmed. "Marius! Are you okay!". "Yes, no thanks to you, what the hell were you thinking, shooting that bastard in the jump pack!". "It's not like I didn't consider what might happen! Besides you're not the one with a large chunk of metal in your fucking chest!". "You two! Stop fighting, there will be plenty more of that when that gate comes down for the both of you! now do you want that out or not!"
Three minutes and twenty curses later the chunk of fuel tank was free and discarded, more squads had moved to the gate, awaiting the inevitable breach. He picked up his lasgun, which had fallen nearby and examined it. The weapon was useless, having taken the full force of the blast. The bolt pistol, which he had managed to keep a hold of, was still in working order, but he had no ammunition, save what he had in the magazine. He grumbled but seeing no other weapons he kept the bolter.
The gate started to crack, and the groan of its weight was heard throughout the port. Dallius joined the line while Marius looked for spare power cells and bolter clips. Standing among the guardsmen he felt that without air support all was lost, as he pondered what had happened to the aircraft, the gate started to bend outward. Rumour had it that it was some warp-spawned daemon, but that was just a rumour. Marius returned with 5 bolter clips and 10 power cells. "That'll do I think" said Dallius. "Maybe" said Marius
The gate burst open and instantly a bolter round hit Dallius in the shoulder. Dallius screamed in pain as he fell to the ground. The bolter round exploded and sent small pieces of shrapnel into his lung. Marius had just recovered from seeing this when a lasbolt hit him in the chest, cauterising the wound and sending him flying into the ground. Dallius having recovered from the initial shock of the bolter round exploding now had the problem of having to fight with one lung punctured and a hole in his shoulder the size of a small plate, the blood loss didn't help either. He took up his bolt pistol and emptied its contents into the onrushing horde of enemies, reloaded with difficulty, then continued firing. It was then he noticed the limp body of his friend on the ground with a smoking hole in his armour.
He fought back tears as he fired his last round into the chaos marines, then looked around. The bodies of guardsmen lie all around him, the remaining living guardsmen continued to fire into the enemy. Dallius reached for a nearby lasgun but he didn't have the strength to grab it. "So this is how it ends," he said half to himself, half to Marius. "Don't give up hope Dal a…after all I'm still alive". Dallius tried to reply but instead coughed up blood. He looked up, his dimming sight still able to see some detail and to his surprise a beam of bright light appeared from the sky immediately followed by an earth-shattering explosion. He smiled as he saw, far up in the sky dozens of small objects coming in though the atmosphere. He knew as his strength faded from him, all of their effort, there sacrifice, was not in vain. His vision faded as something hit the ground with tremendous force.
Chapter 3
Images flew through Dallius's mind, a red armoured soldier with a single yellow drop as a insignia firing a bolter at a black armoured hulk. Then a flash of a bright sun being blocked out by a swarm, then a face saying the words "this one's alive". Then he saw something that made his heart break, his mothers face, sweat dripping down her face and a worried expression on her face. Putting on his jacket, he saw his father looking out a window, autorifle in hand. A guardsman ran into the room. " Sir, we have to move!".*His*fathers unshaven, scared face looked up. "Take the children and my wife."
Dallius awoke with a start. He was in a white sterile room with some machinary in it, he was lying on a bed with a bottle feeding some sort of fluid into his arm. " ah your awake I see". He looked across the room to his visitor. He wore a black hooded robe but underneath he could see gleaming armour and around his neck... He inhaled sharply. An "I" with a skull In the centre, this man was an inquisitor. " I see you know what I am" he said. " I am Inquisitor Danaro of the Ordo *Mallius and my task is to see if you have the taint of chaos apon you". To this Dallius replied "Ask what you need to"
Chapter Master Dante looked at the vid-screen and spoke to the apocathary beside him "does he know?". Unlikely, brother commander he was unconscious for all of his ordeal" the white armoured marine replied. "That shot should of killed him, has he recived any genetic augmention?" asked Dante. "There was something, brother, but nothing that should of done this.". The vox light blinked, and Dante pressed the button. "Chapter Master, there is no taint evident on this man.". "So much for my second guess." Dante said to himself. "Thank you for your aid inquisitor.". "Then let us welcome our visitor"
The inquisitor left, as Dallius breathed a sigh of relief. Inquisitors are known for there "methods" of getting information. He looked again at his room, he saw behind him was a window which looked down apon a planet. Small flashes brightened and winked out as the battle raged below. The battle... Where was Marrius? His thoughts cut short as a gold armoured space marine *walked through the door. A very well known one, Chapter master Dante has lived for over one thousand years and was a hero of the Imperium when other Chapter masters were in dipers.
He lay in shock as the seven foot tall giant sat down beside his bed. Where are you from he said in high gothic. "Tallarn, my lord" he replied in the same language. The marine looked at him amused then his face turned bleak. "Tallarn was conquered by the tyranids a decade ago". "I know, I was there, I saw my family killed and was only saved by a group of guardsmen, me and one other" replied Dallius. "I see" replied the marine. "The apocathary has advised me that it would be safe for you to walk."*
Darrius walked through the many hallways of the ship, until he came apon the the blood angel's trophy room. *In it he found many relics that interested him greatly. There was a sword of a daemon prince that Was killed in single combat by Dante himself when he was just an assult marine. There was artifacts from the Horus heresy such as a full tratior suit of armour unblemished except for a hole in the head. " about time you got up" Dallius smiled "you know me, I like to sleep in.". He turned around and saw Marrius, unmarked except for his flak armour, with a huge hole seared into it.
"I gather you two know each other" a nearby white armoured marine said. "yes, we shed blood together in a few battles, as well as knowing eachother from childhood" replied Marrius. " more than you know, I am the apocathary who worked on you both, and you are... * made of sterner stuff than any soldier that I have ever known". " how do you mean?" replied Dallius. " Well first those wounds would of killed a normal human, second you healed faster than a space marine taking about 6 hours to completely heal.". Just then the ship shuddered and alarms started wailing. "What the..." Dallius started to say but the apocathary quickly said "come with me there is no time" * * * *